The "Middle East and Terrorism" Blog was created in order to supply information about the implication of Arab countries and Iran in terrorism all over the world. Most of the articles in the blog are the result of objective scientific research or articles written by senior journalists.

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Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Turkey's Nuclear Ambitions - Debalina Ghoshal

by Debalina Ghoshal

Nuclear reactors in the hands of a repressive Islamist
authoritarian such as Erdogan could be turned into weapons factories
with little effort.

Russia's ROSATOM already has
nuclear cooperation deals with Iran, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, among
others. Turkey is just the latest to benefit -- possibly along with Iran
and North Korea, both of which have been openly threatening to destroy
America -- from Moscow's play for power in the Middle East and the
Mediterranean.

The West would also do well not to feel secure in the knowledge that Turkey is a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Nuclear reactors in the hands of a repressive Islamist
authoritarian such as Erdogan could be turned into weapons factories
with little effort.

Turkey's announcement over the summer
that it had signed a deal with Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation
(ROSATOM) -- of Hillary Clinton's Uranium One stardom -- to begin
building three nuclear power plants in the near future is cause for
concern. The $20 billion deal, which has been in the works since 2010,
involves the construction in Mersin of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant --
Turkey's first-ever such plant -- will be operational in 2023.

ROSATOM already has nuclear cooperation deals with Iran, Jordan and
Saudi Arabia, among others. Turkey is just the latest to benefit --
possibly along with Iran and North Korea, both of which have been openly threatening
to destroy America -- from Moscow's play for power in the Middle East
and the Mediterranean. It is also a source of desperately-needed revenue
for Russia, hurt by sanctions imposed on Moscow following its invasion
of Ukraine.

Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (then Prime Minister) meets with Russian
President Vladimir Putin on July 18, 2012. Their meeting focused on
nuclear cooperation, among other things. (Image source: kremlin.ru)

Like Iran, Turkey claims that its budding nuclear program is for
civilian purposes only. Ankara's interest in nuclear energy dates back
to the 1960s, when it conducted a study on the feasibility of building a
300-400 megawatt
nuclear power plant, three decades before the rise of President
(formerly Prime Minister) Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP party.

Although it is true is that Ankara is currently incapable of meeting the country's electricity demands,
and relies heavily on imported natural gas even to manage that, it
would be wishful thinking to assume this is Turkey's only goal. Even
though its state-controlled conventional power plants are dilapidated,
since 2001, no public companies in Turkey have been allowed to invest in
them.

Before international sanctions were imposed on Iran -- prior to the 2015 never-signed Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- Tehran and Moscow were Turkey's main suppliers of fossil fuels
for the operation of the conventional plants. Ironically, it was the
hindrance to commerce with Iran that led Turkey to consider nuclear
energy a viable option to supplement the natural gas imports on which it
relies heavily.

Russia is not the only country to strive to profit from Turkey's
nuclear energy ambitions. China, too, evidently wants a share. Last
year, Beijing ratified the nuclear agreement it reached with Turkey in 2012. In 2015, China's arch-rival, Japan, also signed a deal with Turkey: $20 billion for the construction of four nuclear power plants at Sinop, along the Black Sea.

Let us not be lulled by Ankara's touting of the need to accommodate what it claims
is the "highest rate of growing energy demand among OECD countries over
the last 15 years." The West would also do well not to feel secure in
the knowledge that Turkey is a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The ever-radicalizing Erdogan regime, which exploited the opportunity created by the failed coup in 2016 to imprison thousands of judges, journalists,
academic, generals and anyone else suspected of being critical of the
ruling party and its policies, has made no secret of its hegemonic
ambitions in an already volatile and war-torn region. Nuclear reactors
in the hands of a repressive Islamist authoritarian
such as Erdogan could be turned into weapons factories with little
effort. This potential for disaster must be taken into account and
monitored.

Debalina Ghoshal, based in India, is an independent
consultant specializing in nuclear and missile and missile defense
related issues.Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/11296/turkey-nuclear-ambitions Follow Middle East and Terrorism on TwitterCopyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.